Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Lows & Highs 22-10-2018
Lows & Highs 22-10-2018
It's been a week since my last spin session, so today I thought I would give the Meander River another chance of giving up a few trout. The weather when I left was quite reasonable, with a N/NW breeze at around 15kph and quite a bit of cloud cover too, which is how I like it. We had a few reasonable showers of rain a few days ago so if the river didn't give up any fish then I knew that I could always fish Western Creek.
I was at the river edge by 9:50am, it was at the ideal wading height and running very clear. My lure of choice was the Aglia Furia. As I entered the river I spooked a medium size brown trout, which gave me some confidence that there may finally be a few trout around today.
It took me thirty five minutes before I had my first solid hit but the fish missed taking the spinner. I fished on upstream for well over four hundred metres, through some beautiful looking trout water, without having a single follow. To that point the spin session had been a real low for me, having just the one hit and miss after over an hour in the river.
I had made my mind up to fish two more stretches of river before heading back to the car and going to Western Creek. I felt I had to try something different with the lures, so I changed the larger #1 Furia for a small gold #00 Mepps Aglia spinner. One that I had placed a black fury sticker on the spinner blade.
This is when the spin session turned around for the better and the following stretch of river gave up four medium size brown trout?in nine casts! That's trout fishing for you... nothing for well over one and a half hours and then bang! Four fish taken so fast in the one stretch of water... talk about lows and highs. I fished on for another forty minutes without another sign of a trout and those four fish where it for the Meander River. So, now it was off to the creek to see if it would give up a few trout.
Once at the creek I could see that the water level was up by around six inches, from what it was on my previous trip, which was good to see. I started fishing the creek with the same set up that I finished with in the river and had a couple of follows in no time at all but no takers.
I decided to stay with the gold #00 Aglia,?hoping that would draw the attention of a trout or two here as well. As I walked along the river bank, to where I could enter the creek, I looked down over a steep bank and spotted a small brown trout dart off. I though a quick flick from here may be worth a shot at picking up a small brown to start off the session here.
As I started the retrieve I thought, I hope I don't hook into a large fish here because if I do there's no way I can net it from eight feet up. No sooner had I thought this and the lure was smashed by a solid brown that started playing merry hell with me. I didn't have full control over the fish from where I was, so somehow I had to make my way down the steep embankment to the creek.
While keeping the line tight and still fighting the trout, I managed to get down close to the water... then I hit a wet patch of clay. As soon as I hit the clay I was down on my butt and in the river in no time at all! I hit the water feet first and managed to stay upright, while still playing the trout and thankfully the water was only a couple of feet deep where I went in.
After a short, tough battle the brown trout tired and I was able to slip the net under it. Once it the net the lure came away from the fish! I gave myself a high five and it was a great start to the spin session in the creek, with a nice 560 gram brown trout. Yes, I know it wasn't a big fish but when one's fishing with thin four pound mono and gets onto a fish from eight feet up, nine times out of ten it ends in disaster.
After a check of the small trebles and a quick straightening of one of the hooks, I continued fishing my way upstream. It went quiet for a short time before I caught and released three more trout in one small stretch of water. With four trout caught here in the first twenty five minutes I was on a high! The following hour and ten minutes only produced the one hook up from a small brown that spat the lure. The creek was the opposite to the river... it started off on a high and finished with a low. Talk about lows and highs... and highs and lows all in the one day... I had them both!
Cheers,
Adrian (meppstas) Webb